1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ornamental wreaths and, in particular, to wreaths using fresh flowers or the like.
2. Prior Art
Prior art holders for wreaths include such flower support means as wound straw, chicken wire and styrofoam. None of these wreath support means provide a water supply for live flowers or foliage incorporated in the wreath. Without such a water supply, a wreath using live flowers cannot be made a significant time before the wreath is to be used. Thus, a florist cannot very easily spread out a particularly heavy work load. Further, the lack of water severely limits the useful display life of a wreath.
Attempts at providing a water supply for fresh flowers in wreaths include providing an individual water container for each flower and inserting the water container into the wreath. Not only must each water container be individually inserted, the container must be filled with water and then each flower must be individually inserted into the container and the open end of the container sealed as by taping. Such steps add significantly to the total cost of a finished wreath. Thus prior to this invention, the problem of providing a water supply for a wreath of living flowers has not been effectively solved. The prior art also includes the use of moss within the wreath to act as a water supply. Typically, an enclosure is required to support numerous pieces of moss and means must be provided for inserting the moss within the enclosure. Moss has a relatively low total water holding capacity and because of its proportionally large area of surface exposure is subject to a high rate of evaporation. Further, air spaces between the moss tend to reduce the effective water contact with the flower stem. These are among the deficiencies of existing wreaths for live flowers this invention overcomes.